That Child
by The Dark Crimson Blood
Summary: Portgas D. Ace hates doing volunteer work, yet he's forced to sign up due to school requirements. It's because of these requirements that he finds himself doing work at a children's orphanage. Out of all the children there, one child stands out the most, a little boy by the name of 'Luffy'. There's a ten year difference between the two boys, yet why does Ace feel linked to him?
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** That Child  
**Genres: **Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Family  
**Summary: **Portgas D. Ace hates doing volunteer work, yet he's forced to sign up due to school requirements. It's because of these requirements that he finds himself doing work at a children's orphanage. Out of all the children there, one child stands out the most, a little boy by the name of 'Luffy'. There's a ten year difference between the two boys, yet why does Ace feel linked to him?  
**Words:** 1,846  
**Author:** _The Dark Crimson Blood_

* * *

Portgas D. Ace hates doing volunteer work, yet he's forced to sign up due to school requirements. It's because of these requirements that he finds himself doing work at a children's orphanage. Out of all the children there, one child stands out the most, a little boy by the name of 'Luffy'.

So far, Portgas D. Ace has been working at a children's orphanage for a week and sure, it's a pretty okay job. It doesn't really annoy him much, but he would much rather be hanging out with his friends instead of working- caring for a bunch of snot nosed brats. Not all of them are bad, in his opinion. Compared to this one kid, none of them really stand out. Yet, the one who does stand out is a six year old child named Luffy.

To Ace, he's spoiled. He doesn't socialize with the other children, and he doesn't really play with the other children- let alone interact with anyone. Perhaps, in his childlike mind he thinks he's better than anyone else and that they don't deserve his attention. Then again, nothing really peaks his interest either, and so he's always seen sitting in a corner, with his legs pulled to his chest. He's either reading a book, or simply staring off into space.

It's annoying because it gives everyone else a hard time, the owner, Makino even seems to have bags underneath her eyes from dealing with the kid for so long. She also seems sad every time he denies her requests or offers.

As far as Ace knows, Luffy is emotionless. Luffy has never smiled once, and though Ace knows it's only a week- he also knows that a child would usually smile at least once within that period of time. In fact, sometimes Ace wonders if the child is even breathing due to how still and silent he stays.

It's just not natural.

So it bothers him.

Not to mention, the child is in desperate need of a haircut considering his long black and messy bangs cover everything down to the bottom of his mouse like nose; his hair is like a messy mop, and yet the child denies and completely ridicules the idea of a haircut.

Sooner or later, Ace finds himself trying harder and harder to try to get the child to play with other children and interact with others, but Luffy never talks to anyone; not to him, not to the other children, and not even to Makino. No matter what the game and how fun it may seem, Luffy still doesn't join them.

It annoys Ace.

Before Ace knows what's happening, an entire month passes and Ace finally becomes even more pissed off with this spoiled child than he's ever been before.

He wonders why the hell the child has to act like such a spoiled brat, always ignoring those who are trying to be nice to him, and always attracting great amounts of attention from others. At least, that's what he seems to be doing to Ace.

It takes awhile- a long while, but Ace finally manages to catch the child's attention by taking his hat- the straw hat that he always wore on his head no matter what he did or where he was. Another child had wanted to wear it, but when he was asked to share, Luffy simply got up and walked away. Luffy looks up when the hat is taken off of his head and put on another child who runs away with it; surly, there's nothing to be mad about because everything these children have is meant to be shared with everyone else, right?

He must have thought wrong, because the child stands up and runs after the other child after giving Ace the middle finger, an action that a small child like Luffy should not know of; so it leaves Ace absolutely baffled.

Ten minutes pass, and Ace doesn't see the child in his normal spot against the wall in a corner. He hasn't seen the other child who ran off with the straw hat either; so he worries. Ten minutes pass, and when Ace finally finds Luffy, it's when the child is standing atop the other child with a chilling glare on his face. His tiny fists are balled so tightly they're turning white, and blood drips from his lip as if he'd been injured. The child underneath him had a bloody nose and a horrible bruise forming on his eye.

The straw hat that had been given away previously was on the ground with a large gash running through the side, and Ace can only frown disapprovingly at the thought of someone hurting someone else over a mere ten dollar straw hat. Before Luffy has the chance to move, Ace roughly pulls the child off the older child and throws him to the ground.

"Stop acting like such a spoiled brat, it's no wonder you don't have any friends if this is the way you treat others! No one wants such a violent child!" He yells angrily, his hands crossed against his chest and a stress mark appearing on the side of his face as he continues to look down and scold the child.

He tries to stop himself, but he can't and so he accidentally recites what he heard one of the caretakers had said.

"There's a reason e_veryone_ **hates** you!"

Ace watches with a strong sense of regret and guilt as Luffy's eyes start to water up, but before he can take back his words and apologize- or let out some sort of sound whatsoever, Luffy grabs his straw hat off of the ground and runs off.

Ace clamps his mouth shut and doesn't say a word, deciding it's best for Luffy to have some time to cool off and try to figure out just what he did wrong. He instead cares for the injured child who's crying on the ground.

Another week passes, and Luffy remains out of his sight completely. No matter what time Ace comes, Luffy's always locked up in his bedroom in utter silence. It bothers him, and it bothers Ace even more when he has the chance to see even more of the special treatment Luffy's been given by Makino- who specially prepares meals and brings food and beverages to Luffy without a single word of protest- she doesn't even yell at the child for acting rashly and beating up another child or locking himself into a room. If it had been another child, Ace knows that it would have completely unacceptable.

It annoys Ace, because it's as if this child, Luffy is getting everything he wants no matter what he does.

Then it comes to him.

Perhaps there is a reason as to why he's getting such special treatment?

Ace tries to think back to when he first started working at the orphanage, but he can't remember anything special about Luffy. Then again, what about the fact that the child would go down to the infirmary alone for three to six hours every day? This very thought brings great amounts of wonder to Ace's already curious mind. He finds himself desperately wanting to know why he was at the infirmary so much, but no matter who he asks, no one would tell him.

It seemed as if only a few of them knew in the first place.

Makino seemed to be the only one who knew anything about Luffy, yet when he finally pulls himself together enough to ask her in the nicest way possible, she simply shook him off and told him it was none of his business and that there was nothing for him to worry about. In a way, she's one hundred percent correct so he stops asking; it doesn't really answer his question, yet he manages to stop asking because it really is none of his business.

That's right, that annoying black haired child had nothing to do with him.

Nothing to do with him at all…

Then, why did he feel so unnerved?

-  
Another week passes, and the next time Ace hears from the child is when he passes by the locked bedroom door and hears the child crying softly. Even though he denies it and tells himself it's nothing, his body denies it and he finds himself easily picking the flimsly lock on the door because even though he's got nothing to do with Luffy, he can't help but feel somewhat worried. After all, it's his job to look after these children, right?

He finally pushes the door open and finds the small child holding his hat close to his chest as he leans against the wall next to the door, and the second they catch each other's glances, Luffy quickly does his best to wipe his wet eyes and hide the redness that's just too obvious. There are bags underneath his eyes, as if he hasn't been sleeping correctly and this annoys Ace because there's no reason the child should be staying up so late.

It's because he's acting like this just because the hat was ripped.

Ace was never really good with putting up with children, and he notes this when Luffy finally speaks to him. It's when he turns the lights on and says harshly, "It's just a hat, get over it already!"

Waiting for an answer, Ace crosses his arms across his chest and glares down at the child with rage and stubbornness in his eyes.

The reply comes.

"Fuck off and leave me alone."

It surprises him that a child knows how to use such fowl language.

What surprises him even more is how easily the child manages to push him out of the room and then proceeds to slam the door in his face.

He can only stand there, speechless.

He was beginning to hate this child.

* * *

**Sorry for my absence... ;~; I'm still really busy. I'll be updating a little more from now on, I'm working on another chapter of Trafalgar D. Luffy as we speak. Or read...**

**Don't hate me ;-;**

**Won that tournament I mentioned earlier :3 **

**That' pretty much it.**

**_The Dark Crimson Blood_**


	2. That Doctor

**Title:** That Child  
**Chapter Title: **The Doctor  
**Genres: **Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Family  
**Summary: **Portgas D. Ace hates doing volunteer work, yet he's forced to sign up due to school requirements. It's because of these requirements that he finds himself doing work at a children's orphanage. Out of all the children there, one child stands out the most, a little boy by the name of 'Luffy'. There's a ten year difference between the two boys, yet why does Ace feel linked to him?  
**Words:** 1,846  
**Author:** _The Dark Crimson Blood_

* * *

The very next day Portgas D. Ace is given the chance to finally find out more about Luffy's life; and even though it's 'none of his business' he still finds his curiosity compelling him to do so. It's on a normal day on which the sun is shining and the children of the orphanage play freely- all except one. Ace sees Luffy sitting outside the infirmary door of the orphanage with a small book in his hands and the straw hat lay down next to him, the gash is still ever so visible. Finally, after what seems like ten minutes, the door opens and a child leaves the room. Ace watches Luffy stand up, put the small book in his pocket, and then pick up the straw hat.

What surprises Ace is how Luffy seems to walk with pure happiness in his steps, and there's a small smile on his face that only surprises Ace even more.

He isn't looking down.

He isn't staring at the floor as if he wished his presence would disappear.

Curiosity floods through the teenager, and so he moves from his hiding place behind the corner and leans next to the wall as he tries to listen in through a closed door, all while watching through a small crack in the door.

If the smile on Luffy's face wasn't surprising enough, it's even more surprising when he sees the child smile even wider at the sight of a young doctor who seems somewhat shady with the tattoos on his body and the fact that there was a freaking sword in the back of the room.

Yet Luffy smiles widely enough to show his pearly white teeth before he jumps on the man and hugs him tightly. There's even more silence in the area, and Ace's face darkens as he questions himself.

'Is this really Luffy?"

He wonders.

The Luffy he knows is silent, antisocial, spoiled, and mean.

So, if this wasn't Luffy, then who was it?

"How are you today, Luffy?" Oh, so it is Luffy. Ace tells himself as he hears the man's deep voice speak the child's name. Ace can't help but wonder about their relationship when the man ruffles Luffy's hair affectionately, with a small smile of his own on his face.

He sees the man's eyes widen as he carefully takes the ripped straw hat in Luffy's small hands, his stares at it, rotating it as if to get a better look at the gash. "What happened to your hat?" He asks, and Ace freezes because he knows it's his fault for giving it away to a reckless child… But surly, at the same time it wasn't because he was trying to teach Luffy how to share things that didn't belong to him.

"One of the other children ripped it…" The child draws out, and Ace can't help but notice his hesitation. Ace can't help but notice how his hands are curled around the fabric of his thin red shirt, and he can't help but notice the slightly quivering bottom lip either.

"That's strange; you usually never let it out of your sight…" Ace hears the man reply, but then he pauses to put the hat down on his desk. "Did someone try and take it from you?"

Ace swallows heavily, because that's the truth. Knowing Luffy, he's going to tell him off and he'll have some creepy doctor after him.

He's even more surprised when Luffy shakes his head, "No, I was careless."

He watches the older man give the child a reassuring smile, "It's okay; I can fix it." He says as he pats the child on the head, effectively calming him down.

The man hoists the child onto the hospital like bed, and cleans a spot big enough on his arm to hook an IV up to. Ace sees the child wince in pain but yet, he doesn't say anything. The child simply lies down as if he's been through this hundreds of times- but surly, that couldn't be possible, right?

Right?

He's pulled out of his thoughts when he hears Luffy ask yet another question, a question that brings indescribable pain to his chest and nearly invokes tears to his eyes.

"Why does everyone hate me?"

The child moves his head to the side and it's then he sees Luffy's eyes, Luffy's big doe like brown eyes that reveal terrible amount of sadness and misery and suffering.

He nearly chokes up at the sight.

At this, the doctor nearly drops one of his implements and quickly turns to face Luffy; "What do you mean by that?" Luffy doesn't reply. "No one hates you-"

"It's okay if I'm hated by everyone," He sees Luffy cut the man off bluntly, his eyes blinking various times in an attempt to stay awake as each second passes. "As long as Law still loves me..."

Luffy's soft breaths are the last thing Ace hears.

Ace looks up, but the second he does he sees an extremely terrifying person standing over top of him. There's a bloody scalpel in his hand and his expression is dark as he stares down at Ace with a horrifying glare on his face. Ace swears and throws himself away from the man before scrambling away as fast as he can, but he's grabbed and hoisted up by his shirt collar. "Don't hurt Luffy. Don't touch him, don't bother him, don't take anything from him, and don't even look at him. Do you understand?" Ace frowns, managing to rip away from the man's grip.

"I work here, and he's not yours. What are you, some sort of pedophiliac doctor?"

"I assumed you were the pedophile, considering how much you follow Luffy. Luffy is my little brother, if you hurt him one more time, I'll slit your throat with my sword or rearrange all your organs so you won't be able to call yourself a man anymore."

Ace shudders, unable to reply as his body acts on instinct.

He runs for his life,  
and his fleeting manhood.

The next time he sees Luffy is when he's purposefully avoiding the child; it's because the child's being reckless. Lying outside in the rain against a tree with his eyes closed, the child is soaking wet and from where Ace stands- he appears to be sleeping. Ace swallows heavily, debating whether or not he should keep walking or go outside and bring Luffy inside.

He sighs and heads outside, and it takes him literally a minute to reach Luffy. He stands frozen when he sees the child for a minute, because Luffy is shaking. His skin is even paler than ever, there are purple bags underneath his closed eyes, he's completely soaked, and his breaths are lacking and uneven.

He reaches out to the child and touches his cheek, there's a scar underneath his left eye and Ace can't help but wonder how it got there. His train of thought heads towards to just how cold his body is, and before he knows it he finds himself easily picking up the unconscious child and rushing inside.


End file.
